episode_0189

Episode 189 Regression (4)

Chloe, feigning ignorance at my question, asked back.

“Regression? What are you talking about all of a sudden? Senior, did you take something?”

She laughs nonchalantly. She looks as if she’s hearing the word for the first time. But that kind of acting doesn’t work on me.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Well~ I don’t know what Senior is talking about….”

“Chloe.”

I held her hand tightly and spoke softly.

“Please. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

At that moment, I made eye contact with Chloe, and she stared at me intently with a blank face.

“Wow… Senior.”

She let out an exclamation for no reason. Then, with a face full of joy, she grabbed my face with both hands.

“Do you know you looked so hot just now?”

“……”

“For Senior to show this side of himself. What made Senior so weak and desperate? Why is Senior, who always showed a strong side, like this… is it because of Lana? If the situation was just right, I would have right here and now….”

“……”

Chloe mumbled while kneading my face, exhaling with excitement.

Afterwards, she answered my question.

“That’s right. I remember. How hard Senior ran around. How you stood against the god of this place. I remember everything that happened on this land.”

She seemed impressed by what happened before the regression, her voice full of interest.

“Then….”

“But Senior.”

She pressed her finger on my lips and cut me off.

“Why should I tell you that? I clearly gave you a chance. Twice.”

I know. I know so well.

Why she suggested going on a trip two weeks ago. Why she acted differently this week.

Now that I’ve regressed, I realized the meaning hidden in her words and actions at the time, something I didn’t realize then.

“Besides….”

Chloe’s finger moved to my cheek and then down to my neck. It felt like an act of blaming me.

“It wasn’t just Senior I was trying to save. I included Lana in that too.”

“……”

“But it failed, and I tried to save at least Senior somehow. Even by seducing you with my body.”

“……”

“I think that was the best I could do. But for Senior to reject that chance and then come asking for a favor now, isn’t that a bit shameless?”

“……”

If it were someone else, I would have protested, calling it sophistry, but I knew that it was a favor Chloe was extending. If she didn’t care, she wouldn’t even say these words.

“So give up. No matter what words you use to persuade me, I won’t tell you. They say people should take responsibility for their actions~.”

Her tone is light, but her words are full of firm will. It seems like she will never tell me what happened before the regression.

But I went strong.

“No, you will have to tell me.”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? Have you finally gone crazy? And….”

Chloe’s hand, which was continuing her words, had already come down to my chest.

“What words will you use to persuade me? Will you give me your body?”

Chloe’s palm groped my chest.

“Or a vow and love to only look at me?”

Her hand moved to my heart, and she drew a small heart with her fingers.

“Or Senior’s secret?”

After lightly pressing her heart with her fingertip, Chloe let go.

“I prefer the last one if possible. I’ve been getting curious about Senior’s hidden secrets. Especially, setting aside all the other secrets, how did you know about the regression? The concept of regression isn’t well known.”

“……”

“So, Senior? What words will you use to persuade me?”

She took a step away from me and asked. And I answered.

“I’m going to kill myself.”

“Pardon?”

“I said I’m going to kill myself if you don’t tell me.”

“Ha, just….”

The moment she said that. I drew my sword and swung it towards my neck.

Clang!

The sword is blocked by a barrier created in front of my neck. Immediately after, Chloe’s shout pierced my ear.

“Senior, are you crazy? What are you doing!”

“I told you. I’m going to kill myself.”

“Who actually does what they say!”

Instead of words, I show her with actions. This time, I shot sword energy to both sides. Chloe’s magic blocked the swords.

However, I didn’t stop, and the continuous actions stopped only after Chloe grabbed my sword.

“It’s a misconception if you think suicide methods are only swords.”

I raised my hand. At my appearance, Chloe sighed and said.

“Senior. Do you think this kind of threat will work on me?”

“Yeah, I think it will.”

Chloe laughed in disbelief.

“It’s true that I want Senior, but don’t get me wrong. You’re not worth that much to me.”

“No, I am worth it. Chloe, you’ve revealed too many weaknesses.”

“What are my weaknesses?”

“Me.”

Someone said. There’s nothing as foolish as confronting a regressor.

That’s because the value of a regressor was much more precious than possession or reincarnation, and the moment you’re hated by such a regressor, you’re abandoned.

However, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for negotiation.

Proof of value. If you put something the other person wants on the table, you could at least continue the conversation.

And that value was me.

“If I was just a slightly shiny stone among the stones rolling on the street to you, you wouldn’t be doing this.”

At least a diamond. No, a gem of even greater value, that’s why you showed a series of actions.

If that wasn’t the case, you wouldn’t have given me two chances, and you wouldn’t have tried to stop me from killing myself.

At my words, Chloe said with a face full of ridicule.

“Do you really think so?”

“I think so.”

I said in a tone full of strong conviction. Chloe let go of the sword and stepped back.

“Then try it.”

“……”

“What are you doing. I said try it?”

At her urging, I immediately acted without a moment’s hesitation.

The sword towards my neck, my hand towards my heart. I put all my strength into dying at once. And the moment the blade reached my carotid artery and my fingertip touched right above my heart.

Thud, Chloe, who had approached at some point, stopped me from digging in with both hands. Her eyes, filled with embarrassment, were shaking violently.

“You crazy bastard… you’re actually doing it?”

“It’s because I’m the type to not stop once I make up my mind.”

“There’s a limit to that!”

After snatching the sword and throwing it far away, and fixing both arms with magic, Chloe continued to speak.

“Haa….”

She grabbed her head as if she was aching and suggested to me.

“Senior, this is your last chance. If you leave here even now, I’ll let you take one other person besides Lana.”

“You should know too. I will never leave the Holy Kingdom until I solve this.”

If I can’t hear the story from Chloe, there is no hope. I’d rather give up and die than face a world where the protagonist and supporting actors die.

“You son of a bitch….”

Chloe frowned and cursed. She looked frustrated because things didn’t go her way.

After maintaining that state for a while, she called me.

“Senior.”

“Why.”

“I’ll only tell you and won’t help you with anything.”

I was so dumbfounded by those words that I laughed.

“You wouldn’t have helped me even before the regression, would you?”

“That’s not my area of responsibility… haa, never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Chloe sighed again.

“So what are you curious about?”

“Tell me in front of the other kids, not just me.”

This is one of the main episodes. It’s not the kind I can solve alone. We have to combine our strength with everyone.

“It’s not a very good choice… well, okay. If that’s what Senior wants.”

It was a somewhat meaningful word, but only I couldn’t understand it.

Immediately after, Chloe took the portal she opened and moved to the harbor.

***

♩♬♩♪~

The sound of songs being heard from everywhere. Even in that moment when the world might end, the festival was proceeding without stopping.

At that time, Evan and Veil came this way from the dancing crowd.

“Hyunnniiim! Where did you go… ugh? Chloe is here too?”

“Hyungnim… I see Hyungnim as two…,”

“I told you to drink moderately. Let’s sober up first.”

I moved the mana and woke up the two who were drunk first.

“Ugh, my head….”

“I’m sorry for showing you an ugly side….”

“Okay, follow me for now.”

I take the two of them to where the group is. There, Lana, who was slightly sober, and Ariel, who was frowning, were there.

Ariel glared at me when I appeared.

“Kyle, where have you been… why did you bring those three?”

“I brought them because I have something to explain.”

I woke up Lana like the other two and called Chloe.

“Chloe, explain.”

“Really, you shouldn’t make a woman do things like this~.”

Chloe put up a barrier with mana and explained in a slightly exaggerated voice.

“Okay, before I get to the main point, let me explain briefly that everyone in this place died. In the future too.”

Then everyone except me had question marks on their faces.

“What do you mean, Chloe?”

“Ask questions later and keep listening, Evan.”

Chloe calmed down her curiosity for a moment and continued.

“This country has been destroyed. By God too. And now I’ve regressed. I wonder if you know the word regression? To put it simply, it means I came back from the future to the past.”

“So that means… you turned back time, Chloe?”

“That’s right, Princess. I turned back time. By a god named Yellow.”

At that moment, silence flowed inside the mana barrier. In it, Chloe told them about their deaths.

“Veil and the Princess died protecting people, and Evan, you also died by God. And Lana also died protecting Senior.”

“T, then what happened to Kyle, Chloe…?”

“Senior lived. Instead, he only lived to suffer tremendously. How sad it was to see him gathering and leading the survivors and resisting God.”

Chloe wiped her eyes with her hands as if crying. Because of that nonsense, attention was focused for no reason. In particular, Ariel looked at me with an expression that she understood everything.

“Stop saying useless things and keep explaining.”

“I’m going to do that anyway~.”

After that, Chloe explained what happened before the regression and finished her words.

“Okay, that’s it. Anyone have anything to ask?”

At those words, Ariel asked first.

“How does Chloe remember that? Even God doesn’t remember, so why only Chloe….”

“If I explain in detail, the explanation will be long… you can think of it as storing the memory in another space and calling it back.”

Of course it’s a lie. She is not affected by black or the power of God in this world.

Anyway, the explanation is over. Everyone seemed to have understood the approximate situation, and they seemed to be organizing it in their heads, at least roughly.

I left them alone and asked Chloe.

“Chloe. There’s only one thing I want to ask.”

“What is it?”

“When will the incident happen?”

Perhaps Estella is already in the hands of Black. Estella left for Blue’s palace, and Blue was on Black’s side.

Since something that should have happened next year happened in advance, I am confident in this fact.

So I find out when Black is attacking and prepare for it. That is the most correct choice I can make now.

“Umm, if I answer Senior’s question….”

Chloe tilted her head as if thinking carefully and said to us.

“Now?”

A tsunami covering the harbor. Once again the world was destroyed.